Product- en diensteninnovatie in internationale arbeidsbemiddeling worden bemoeilijkt door onduidelijkheid en onzekerheid. In dit working paper van het Expertisecentrum Grensoverschrijdend Inlenen van Arbeid wordt beschreven wat de huidige stand van zaken is in de bouwnijverheid. Ook worden relevante cijfers gepresenteerd over de bouwarbeidsmarkt en komen ontwikkelingen in de bedrijfstak op het gebied van grensoverschrijdend inlenen van arbeid aan de orde. Het paper eindigt met een vooruitblik op de verdere ontwikkeling van (tijdelijke arbeids)migratie in de bouwnijverheid.
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In recent years, the number of publications on innovation in the construction industry has increased. Many of these documents address qualitative issues, e.g. policies for innovation and present case studies. A more quantitative approach is taken in this paper, which is the continuation of a previous study. It focuses on main types and sources of innovation in the construction industry, and includes an analysis of 55 years of publications in two leading Dutch professional journals. The results show a recent increase in innovation, with two-thirds of innovations coming out of supplying industries. Construction companies contribute mainly in process innovations. Innovation in construction remains to be technology- rather than market-driven. Regulations have a surprising impact, as over one-third of all counted new innovations are related to new regulations.
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Since the film of Al Gore An inconvenient truth, sustainability stands high on the national agenda of most countries. Concern for the environment is one of the main reasons in combination with opportunities to innovate. In general, innovation and entrepreneurship are important in the realm of national economies because they hold the key to the continuity and growth of companies (e.g. Hage, 1999; Cooper, 1987; Van de Ven, 2007) and economic growth within a country. It is therefore obvious that national governments are investing money to enable and improve innovation management and entrepreneurial behaviour within organizations with sustainability in mind. Policy measures are aimed at reduction of carbon dioxide emission, waste management and alternative use of energy sources and materials. In line with these measures companies are urged to integrate sustainability in their business processes and search for innovative sustainable solutions. While on a national level policy measures towards a more sustainable society are defined, enterprises - and especially small and medium sized companies - lag behind and fail in incorporating these measures appropriately in their day-to day business. As a result research for sustainability has become an important driver for innovation. Within the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CI&E) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences we have taken the initiative to develop an innovation and research program for the construction industry to help small and medium sized companies (SME's) integrate sustainability in their business processes, while simultaneously professionalizing students and lecturers. This paper is part of ongoing research among 40 companies in the region of South-Holland. The companies are mostly SME's varying from very small (6 employees) to middle-sized (more than 100). According to Rennings (2000) while innovation processes toward sustainable development have received increasing attention during the past years, theoretical and methodological approaches to analyse these processes are poorly developed. This paper describes a theoretical approach developed at our university's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which combines education and research. It is an inductive approach that departs from real-life problems encountered by companies, and is aimed at developing a model that supports companies in integrating sustainability in their business and innovation processes. We describe the experiences so far with a number of companies in the construction industry, which participate in the innovation and research program described above and the barriers they encounter. Our sustainable program is centred on four themes: cradle-to-cradle, social corporate responsibility, climateneutral construction and sustainability and customer orientation in the building process. It is an exploratory research in which students and undergraduates are involved under the supervision of a lecturer as senior researcher of this program. Through an in-depth analysis of the companies, participant observation and indepth interviews with the owners/directors of the companies, experts and prominent sustainable trendsetters, insight is gained in innovation processes towards sustainable development. Preliminary conclusions show that on a company level one of the main bottlenecks is the dilemma posed by the need for profit for the continuity of a company, while taking into account people and planet. The main bottleneck is however the inability of companies to translate policy measures into strategy and operations. This paper is set up as follows. In section 2 we give an account of European and Dutch policy measures geared at stimulating sustainability in a business context and especially the building and construction industry. In section 3 an overview is given of the economic importance and characteristics of the Dutch building and construction industry and the problems in this sector. These problems are offset against the opportunity of sustainability as a strategic option for SME's in this sector. In section 4 the innovation and research program developed at the CI&E is introduced in the context of the main research question. Following that in section 5, methodological choices are addressed and the research design is presented. We finalize this paper in section 6 with our conclusions and recommendations for further research.
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Textiele toepassingen in de bouw/architectuur beginnen steeds relevanter te worden. Architecten en ontwerpers waarderen de driedimensionale vormvrijheid die door de lichtgewicht, flexibele materialen bewerkstelligd kunnen worden. Fabrikanten kunnen steeds meer functionaliteiten integreren, zoals elektronica en zonnecellen. Gebruikers zoals aannemers kunnen met textiele oplossingen meer duurzame en circulaire opties aanbieden. Ondanks deze potentie weten de bouw en textiel werelden elkaar nog onvoldoende te vinden. Om de mogelijkheden van nieuwe functionaliteiten en vrijheden voor lichtgewicht textiele oplossingen te verkennen, is dit consortium van innovatieve partijen vanuit diverse posities over de waardeketen van plan kennis en kansen te delen. In samenwerking met het gerenommeerde Jongeriuslab is dit KIEM project, in de vorm van een Pressure Cooker, de start van een project waarin concepten, ontwerpen en prototypes voor toepassingen in textiele architectuur vorm krijgen. De samenwerking tussen designers en onderzoekers en bedrijven maakt dit project extra innovatief. De pressure cooker bestaat uit 3 fases, de analytische fase, de ontwerpfase en de concept ontwikkeling. Dit zal beginnen en eindigen met een bijeenkomst van het hele consortium, en tussentijds zullen de bedrijven bezocht en betrokken worden bij de verschillende fases. Resultaten bestaan uit: - Eerste prototypes van textiele, recycleerbare en functionele materialen die op kortere of langere termijn beschikbaar zullen voor bouwtoepassingen. - Ontwikkelde concepten over hoe kunnen dergelijke materialen toegepast en onderworpen worden aan een realistische testomgeving. - Concrete (circulaire) businesscases die aantrekkelijk zijn voor zowel textiel- als bouwnijverheid en uitwerkingen voor welke uitdagingen, zowel technologisch als marketingtechnisch, deze zich geplaatst zien. - Projectplan waarin samenkomt hoe bovenstaand in de regio, met zowel textiele als bouwnijverheid, innovatiepartners bijeenbrengen in een aansprekend “open innovatie” project kunnen worden samengebracht.
